My mother-in-law, Helen Cherry, had a special love of roses. The family farm where she was born and raised west of Salem, continues to be alive with her roses many years after her passing. And now we have one of her roses in our yard, too, thanks to the simple technique of soft stem cuttings.
You take a cutting from the plant, a bit of new stem that’s still pliable and green and with a little TLC it will develop roots and become its own fine specimen.
The rose in the top picture started life as a stem cutting from a rangy grower in Helen’s garden. I clipped it seven years ago, while she was still with us and sharing stories of life on a 100-acre dairy farm nestled along the Willamette River. Having one of her roses in our garden is a felt connection to the farm and to her.
All it took to grow that rose was patience, a clear plastic take-out container with a lid, a bit of dampened soil, some rooting hormone and time. I punched a few holes in the plastic lid so the plant could breathe, set it on a window sill for a couple of months, and the roots formed. Another couple of months later, it was large enough to pot up, and a year after that it went into the ground. Now it’s well over six feet tall and wide. Life finds a way, doesn’t it?
Every spring when the first pink sweetheart roses begin to bloom, I think of her, her great energy, her funny stories, her family photo albums that always evoked memories.
The plant in the container is a gardenia I started in October 2024, Eighteen months later (this is the patient part), the gardenia start looks like this. It’s about ready to go outside.
Photos by Susan Palmer
Susan Palmer's Exquisite Now 
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